Should JuJu Watkins’ team have been a higher seed? USC coach feels ‘disrespected’ by March Madness placement

The USC Trojans are the fourth No. 1 seed in the March Madness bracket, and coach Lindsay Gottlieb feels some type of way about it.

Usually when teams are handed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, they are ecstatic. Or at least happy.

But it would be incorrect to say that USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb felt that way on Sunday night when the women’s March Madness bracket came out.

The Trojans were indeed a No. 1 seed after going 28-3, winning the Big Ten regular season title and appearing in the conference tournament championship game. But they were the fourth No. 1 seed, behind the likes of UCLA, South Carolina and Texas. And so, theoretically, out of all the top seeds, USC now has the hardest path to the Final Four.

And a glance at their region — Spokane 4 — shows that, indeed, the Trojans’ road to Tampa is no walk in the park. In addition to No. 2 UConn likely waiting for them in the Elite Eight, USC could have face two SEC teams in Mississippi State and Kentucky along the way. Should that region go chalk, it’ll be the second consecutive year that USC and UConn have played in the Elite Eight.

Gottlieb was not pleased with her team’s placement.

“I never thought I’d be a one seed and feel disrespected,” Gottlieb told the LA Times. “I thought there would be very little chance that we’d be the No. 4 overall No. 1… We’ll handle it accordingly, but you tell me if you think that bracket that we got should’ve been the one that it was… This was not on my bingo card to be a little bit frustrated after being a one-seed, and it’s not an arrogance of any kind. I think there’s a lot of really good teams… But sometimes I don’t understand people that make decisions in women’s basketball and why they do what they do, and certainly with this committee, I would love to ask some questions.”

Does Gottlieb have a legitimate beef? The math says that, no, not really.

Consider that Texas and South Carolina both had more Quad 1 wins than USC and the same number of losses. UCLA and USC both had 13 Quad 1 wins, but USC had one more loss. Against the top 100 of the NET, USC had 18 wins, while UCLA had 19, Texas had 20, and South Carolina had 22. Of the four teams, USC also had the weakest average opponent NET rank at 18. USC is sixth in the NET and the other three are in the top four.

Had USC beat UCLA a third time in the Big Ten championship, they may have been the No. 1 overall seed. But the loss on that big stage ultimately left the Trojans fate in the hands of the selection committee.

And remember, it’s part of the committee’s job to essentially put together a good TV show. It’s why Duke and North Carolina are on track to meet in the Sweet 16.

And a potential Elite Eight matchup between JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers again is going to make for excellent TV.